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《曲外之音》-印在钞票上的名流,却因"桃色绯闻"失了仕途?




Hamilton(Ⅰ)



Background to the show


Premiered off-Broadway in February 2015, then moved to Broadway in August 2015, after much acclaim.



It has received and been nominated for a LOT of awards. A total of 92, counting nominations, wins, and personal awards for cast and crew.



A filmed version was released online in 2020.



There is very little spoken word. Similar to Les Mis, it is sung all the way through, but with a very different musical style. I spent 2.5 hours listening to it, and it was very cool.




Brief Overview


The show tells the story of Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of the US.



Hamilton was an orphan who, through hard work, rose to be Secretary of the Treasury, and creating many of the institutions that the US still use today.



The story moves through his actions during the Revolution and the creation of the Constitution of the US, and into his personal life, with his affair, the death of his son, and his own death in a duel with a former friend.



(I don’t think the story is very interesting for anyone without a knowledge of US history and the founding of the country, or for someone with no “stake” in it.)



第588期节目全记录文本


Oliver

Lulu


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Hi, everyone. And welcome back to The Sound of Musicals.欢迎回来【曲外之音】. Hi, Oliver.

Hello.

So actually I was gonna say, can I propose a musical that we're gonna talk about today?

Of course. Yeah.

It's actually a very new one. It's Hamilton. It has been requested a few times by our listeners. Have you watched or listened to the soundtracks in Hamilton?

I have never seen the show, but after it was requested a lot by your audience, I did find the soundtrack online and listen to it, and I can see what’s requested. I did really enjoy the music from it, it was fantastic, it was really good.

It's very different, isn't it.

Very different from the other things we have talked about, yes, it's a much more modern show with an old topic. The storyline and the plots is historical, a few100 years old, but it's got a very modern take to it with modern music, and a modern cast, and for a modern audience.

You say it's a historical musical, it's about the story of Alexander Hamilton,right? What Americans see as one of their founding fathers就是美国人都会视为是开国元勋之一的这个Alexander Hamilton.

Yes, so the whole story the whole show is about the life of Alexander Hamilton, who is or was one of the founding fathers of the US, yes, he had a very interesting life.

As people know, I like history and this was quite an interesting little section of history to look at, because I don't know much about it before this.

Because it is American history, it's very America centric, this whole musical.

Yeah, the musical is Americentric because it's the story of one of the people who created the country, it has significance to people in America. And one of the things I didn't understand all of the story that was put forward because a lot of it depends on this background knowledge and just cultural knowledge from living in and growing up in the US and being American which I don't have.

But aside from that, it was still very interesting.

There are a lot of cultural references in this.

Yes, lots and lots of different cultural references; and it’s those references and how they are used that make it a very good musical in my opinion.

OK, I understand this is more… almost like a biography of one of America's founding fathers Alexander Hamilton.

So I'm not gonna ask you to walk us through the story because it's the story you can find in history books or in history entries, but can you give us a little bit of the background because I'm sure a lot of the audience don't really know that much about Alexander Hamilton.

Of course, I can… it's a little history lesson for today. I had to find this myself because I didn't know anything about him either. But this show is about his life, as we've said, he was one of the founding fathers of the US, he was an orphan on the island of Nevis in the Caribbean before moving to New York when he got older, and he joined the revolution or the American War for Independence, whichever you would like to call it.

恩,独立战争

And he became quite a prominent figure in that and becoming the aid-de-camp (副官) of George Washington.

So basically he’s second in command, his right hand man, he did lots of the organization for George Washington during his battles and his campaigns.  

After the war was over, he moved into the position of Secretary of The Treasury. So he was in charge of the money of the new American nation. It was a very difficult job for him, but some of the things he did are still in the US today.  

So you were saying his impact on the American history. One part is he was actually quite important in the creation of the constitution, right? 美国宪法的立宪的过程中,他是起了很重要的作用。

Yes, so he was one of the people who debated and argued and tried to formalize the Constitution, the first Constitution of the US and that sets down mostly everything about what the American nation was at the time.

And they still have it today, and it's gone through lots of changes and amendments, but it is still a vital integral part of America and the US.

Yeah, I think that pretty much says about the most important bit of the show.


Obviously it goes into great details about his political life, his personal life.

Yeah, so side from the nation building that he was part of, it talks about his personal life, his marriage to his wife Elizabeth; their children; the affair that he has, he has an affair with a lady and then is blackmailed by her husband which eventually comes out.

And he publishes letters and pamphlets telling the whole story, so his political enemies, his political opponents can't use it against him, but it does affect his marriage and it does stop him from ever becoming the president of the US which might have been the case if he hadn't had the affair.

Yeah, It's a very dramatic life he led if I remember correctly, he actually died in a duel with a former friend. They didn't agree and then they sort of decided to have a duel, 就是跟他的原来的朋友包括战友进行了一个决斗,and then he was killed.

Yes, so his old friend Aaron Burr, who was friend from in New York, before the revolution, as time went on, they started to drift apart with their opinions, their ideals, and their the path they wanted to take.  It ended with both of them saying not nice things about the other.

And in those days, one of the ways of fixing those problems was a duel, they both agreed to it, they both met up. And Aaron Bur shoots Hamilton, and Hamilton dies later on from that gunshot.

That was the time that you were still allowed, legally allowed to duel.

It was legal, but it wasn't highly looked upon by some people, he was involved in a duel when he was with George Washington. Two others had a duel and Hamilton supported the duel. And George Washington actually fired him and sent him home because it wasn't the proper thing to do. It wasn't illegal, but it wasn't seen as necessary sometimes, especially not in the military where they were.

I see, now that's about the gist of the story because it's obviously about Hamilton's life. This show, it premiered, interestingly it premiered off the Broadway. It wasn't designed as a major, initially wasn't like a major, major Broadway debut. This was premiered in February 2015. And then because it was so popular, then they moved to Broadway.

Yes, most of the musicals we talk about have started on either the West End or Broadway. They haven't had a before time. But this one, it was off Broadway in February of 2015, but then a few months later in August, it moved there because it was so popular and people enjoyed it so much and there was such good reviews and it had to go to Broadway really.

I can sort of see why it gets so popular, especially in the United States because this is an American story.

Yeah, I think the tagline for this, the full title is Hamilton: An American Musical.

So it is without a doubt aimed at an American audience, and like I said, some of the history, the references, and the events, I struggled to understand them just from listening to the musical because I think it needs a certain level of historic knowledge and cultural understanding to fully appreciate it.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's very American aimed, but not bad because of it, I think it's a fantastic musical still.

Yeah, it's just certainly it's different from the conventional musical. I think we need to make it specific for people who have never watched or listened to Hamilton.

One thing that really sets it apart from, for example, I mean all of these musicals that we have been talking about is the style of the music. There's so much Hip Pop, Rap. It's very, very modern and it's very sort of traditionally, I would say more pop music rather than highbrow, like we talked about Phantom and that was like using Opera. This is more down to earth using Rap and Hip Hop.

Yes, so it's using new types of music which hasn't been in musicals before. That's why it has had such a claim is because it has taken this different road, this different path to present a musical.

A historical musical is not so different.  Les Misérables is historical, but it focuses on the story rather than the history. This one is much more historical in terms of what it talks about. But the music is really what sets it apart for me.

If it wasn't for the music, I don't think I would like this show. The story without having a lot of knowledge of US history and without having a cultural background in the USA,  the story did not jump out at me.

It was interesting historically, but it really was the music that grabbed me with this show. It really was…

I think every country has that sort of slightly more leaning towards patriotism or like national pride sort of works. And that really only speaks to emotionally only speaks to people from that country because you can feel a sense of that national pride and sense of your root, so to speak…

Definitely yes. Calling it an American musical is correct, it is an American musical. I am not supposed to understand everything. I am not American.

Yeah.

And that's OK.

OK

And There's nothing wrong with that at all. So it is aimed for an American audience and it was very good though

Same as a lot of the shows a lot of British shows are aimed at British audience. Chinese movies are aimed at Chinese audience. Similar thing….

Of course. Yeah, you can't cater to everybody so to speak, so you have to choose your audience and make something for them.  I think Hamilton did it very well.

Well, it definitely has all these awards to show for it.

So many nominations, oh you counted them?

I counted them, yes. I counted… I saw how many nominations and wins the show, the cast, and the crew had. And I think it came to about 92 since it released in 2015. That is a lot of awards in 7 years.

Exactly. Wow.

I'm not surprised if I'm honest, I’m not surprised, but that is a lot.

Yes, I would say now we've got the basics. We're gonna wrap up here, In Part Two about Hamilton, we're gonna get more into some of the not really conflicts, but some of the themes or some of the more in-depth discussion about the show and also of course the music.


Yeah, so there's not much conflict, I think, but definitely lots to talk about.

OK, and until next time.

See you then.



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